Black and gold vest worn by LaMonte McLemore of The 5th Dimension: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Black vest with gold decoration and fringe worn by LaMonte McLemore of The 5th Dimension. The collarless black vest has a straight hem with squared front opening edges and oversized armholes. It is made of a black polyester-cotton blend fabric that is decorated with gold woven tape in a looped design around the neck, front sides, hem, and armholes. There are four (4) gold bead and sequin appliques of stylized flowers sewn on the fronts, two (2) on each side, with the top two facing upward and the bottom two facing downward. Beaded gold fringe is sewn at both shoulder seams with black velvet tape covering it in the middle along the seam. Fifty-five (55) lengths of gold woven tape in an open design are sewn all along the hem of the vest to make fringe approximately twenty (20) inches long. Each piece of fringe is hemmed with tightly woven gold tape. The vest is lined with black synthetic fiber. There is a black fabric label at the interior back neck with gray machine-embroidered text reading "LE DOUX ROAD / of Beverly Hills".

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: ca. 1980
• Designed by: Le Doux Road, American
• Worn by: LaMonte McLemore, American, 1935 - 2026
• Subject of: The 5th Dimension, American, founded 1966
• Type: vests (main garments)
• Medium: polyester and cotton blend, synthetic fiber, gold foil fringe, gold foil tape, sequin paillettes, and plastic and glass beads
• Dimensions: H x W (Flat): 40 1/2 × 17 3/4 in. (102.9 × 45.1 cm)
• Dimensions: Waist: 22 in. (55.9 cm)
• Place made: Beverly Hills, Los Angeles County, California, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Clothing and dress
• Topic: Costume
• Topic: Costume design
• Topic: Design
• Topic: Popular music
• Topic: Rhythm and blues (Music)
• Topic: Singers (Musicians)
• Object number: 2013.198.2
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of LaMonte McLemore founding member of The 5th Dimension
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: Unknown - Restrictions Possible Rights assessment and proper usage is the responsibility of the user.